33,333 days – and not one without Cumhuriyet

This paper draws its strength from its readers. Thanks to this, it manages to retain its independence and freely carry out journalism without bowing its head to rulers or courting the favour of any powerful economic group. It is able to give a truthful account of events and news, criticise governments and public officials, and also publish things that some would rather remained unreported and unpublished.
Those who wish to silence it have now mounted a double-pronged attack.
They want to take over the Cumhuriyet foundation in a civil lawsuit and deliver it to forces that have aligned themselves with the AKP government.
Eleven of our colleagues have been remanded in custody in a penal case. Remand has been turned into punishment as they await an indictment that never seems to be drafted. Not only are our eleven colleagues suffering punishment, but the intent is also to hamper Cumhuriyet’s management
We will prevail in the civil and penal suits thanks to massive support from jurists and the staunch resistance of our colleagues within and our friends without. We have no doubts about this, so let our readers have none, either.
But, there are also financial constraints that are squeezing Cumhuriyet very hard. The sole and inescapable remedy in the face of this is to raise the price of our paper.
Our paper’s cover price has become two Turkish lira as of today.
The price last increased from one to one and a half lira on 14 July 2014, and, two and a half years on, we are left with no choice but to revise it. The US dollar stood at 2.10 Turkish lira on the date on which we set our paper’s cover price at one and a half lira. Today it stands at 3.74. There has thus been a 77% increase in the exchange rate. Apart from the paper’s wages, basic cost items such as paper and printing move in line with the exchange rate. We thus find ourselves forced to increase the price to meet these cost increases.
The way forward does not involve raising the price of the paper alone. As you will see at the top of the paper’s front page today, we are also launching a campaign. The goal is to reach many more readers and take the paper’s circulation figures to the levels it deserves.
To this end, we are reaching out in an extensive promotional drive on social media channels such as Facebook and Twitter. On top of this, a separate campaign will roll out in a few days’ time with the aim of enabling our readers in Europe to read the entire printed paper in an electronic setting.
Our goal is patently clear: To champion our freedoms, democracy and secularism more forcefully and effectively hand in hand, shoulder to shoulder with our readers who stand in opposition to the silencing of our paper.
We know that, if Cumhuriyet becomes silent, the voice of this country’s forces of democracy, secularism and freedom, not least that of our readers, will also be stifled.
We cannot and will not permit this.